Once a brake problem slowed McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel had no competition in Sunday evening’s inaugural day/night Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. A brilliant win cemented his second place in the drivers’ world championship behind Brawn GP’s Jenson Button, who enlivened the end of the race with a superb challenge to the second-placed Red Bull of Mark Webber in the closing stages.
Hamilton led from pole and built a lead of 1.4s when he refuelled on the 17th lap. Vettel was able to run until the 20th, and emerged comfortably in the lead. Soon afterwards Hamilton’s challenge ended when McLaren had to withdraw his car after the telemetry revealed a problem with the right rear brake pads which were suffering from excessive wear.
Webber thus moved up to second, with Button at that stage a distant third ahead of Brawn GP team mate Rubens Barrichello. The Brazilian had run ahead of the Englishman on the opening lap but clipped Webber’s left-rear wheel with the right-hand endplate of his front wing, causing understeer. Button overtook, and chased after Webber while, at one stage, unsuccessfully fending off impressive rookie Kamui Kobayashi, until the Toyota driver finally refuelled.
€n the closing stages Button found the softer Bridgestone option tyre cured the understeer he’d had on the harder primes and homed in on Webber like a heat-seeking missile. On the final lap he drew alongside at the end of the 1.2km back straight, but Webber handled the situation beautifully, hogging the inside line and forcing Button to go to the outside where he didn’t want to go. They ran side by side for a while, but the Australian was able to keep his second place by 0.6s.
Behind them, the race was relatively uneventful. Nick Heidfeld signed off BMW Sauber’s tenure as a joint team with a solid fifth place ahead of Kobayashi, who proved to be the find of the second half of the season. Toyota’s Jarno Trulli was seventh, two-stopping where Kobayashi stopped once, and Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi survived a challenge and a brush with BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica, which left the Pole spinning, to take the final point.
Nico Rosberg was ninth for Williams with a recovered Kubica 10th. McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen fought up from his 18th place start to take 11th, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen’s uncompetitive Ferrari, Kazuki Nakajima’s Williams, Fernando Alonso who took his Renault until the 34th lap before his sole refuelling stop, and similarly single-stopping Vitantonio Liuzzi whose Force €ndia was the last unlapped runner.
Ferrari’s Giancarlo Fisichella jumped Romain Grosjean’s Renault in the closing laps for 16th, and the Franco Swiss driver was so unsettled that Force €ndia’s Adrian Sutil also sneaked by.
Besides Hamilton, the only other retirement was Jaime Alguersuari. The Spaniard mistakenly tried to refuel in Vettel’s Red Bull pit instead of his own Toro Rosso camp and was frantically waved back round. He stopped soon after out on the track.
€n the constructors’ world championship, McLaren retained third place ahead of Ferrari, while Williams lost sixth at the last gasp by 1.5 points to BMW Sauber
News from Formula One in the Formation Lap.
Showing posts with label Yas Marina. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yas Marina. Show all posts
Sunday, 1 November 2009
Monday, 26 October 2009
GP2 drivers full of praise for Yas Marina Circuit
The first time the Formula One drivers will experience the newly-built Yas Marina Circuit will be during Friday’s opening practice session for this weekend’s inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Their GP2 Asia colleagues, however, are one step ahead, after 23 of them got the chance to sample the new venue on Friday and Saturday at a two-day test, a week before its public opening. As well as the Grand Prix, Yas Marina will also host the opening two rounds of the new GP2 Asia season next weekend.
Organisers believed the test would be an ideal opportunity to evaluate the circuit's operating systems and services before the Grand Prix gets underway. And after enjoying their first outing, the GP2 Asia drivers were quick to praise the venue and its facilities.
“The combination of the layout features some very fast corners, very slow corners, and a mixture between the long straights," said DAMS' Christian Vietoris, runner-up in the 2009 Formula Three Euro Series.
"It looks very promising in terms of a racing show. It’s my first time in Abu Dhabi, it’s nice and sunny. I have a smile on my face, and when you see this very nice track you will understand why.”
Vietoris’s DAMS team mate Edoardo Piscopo was equally enthralled, saying: “It’s very exciting to race here as it is an incredible venue. It will be challenging, a drivers’ track, there are some nice corners, very wide so we should be able to pass each other. Everything is amazing, everything is new. In these difficult times it is great to be in a place that is so positive.”
As well as clearly enjoying their runs on the track, the GP2 Asia drivers also relished the circuit’s distinctive challenges, which tested their driving skills to their limits.
“The track has fast corners, slow corners like a street circuit, long straights, and is hard on brakes,” explained Barwa Addax driver Luiz Razia. “My first impression was very good. You can feel the elevation changes. Going uphill and you can’t see anything and then downhill you see a great view, albeit like a flash.”
Scuderia Coloni’s Roldan Rodriguez added: “It was very fun to drive, and the corners were tricky. For sure it will be easy for the public to enjoy. It will be very easy to lose the traction on the corners, making it difficult for drivers and very good for the public.”
Over the course of the two days, some sessions were held in the dark to test the circuit’s lighting system. The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which will be the first-ever twilight Formula One race, will get underway at Yas Marina on Friday
Their GP2 Asia colleagues, however, are one step ahead, after 23 of them got the chance to sample the new venue on Friday and Saturday at a two-day test, a week before its public opening. As well as the Grand Prix, Yas Marina will also host the opening two rounds of the new GP2 Asia season next weekend.
Organisers believed the test would be an ideal opportunity to evaluate the circuit's operating systems and services before the Grand Prix gets underway. And after enjoying their first outing, the GP2 Asia drivers were quick to praise the venue and its facilities.
“The combination of the layout features some very fast corners, very slow corners, and a mixture between the long straights," said DAMS' Christian Vietoris, runner-up in the 2009 Formula Three Euro Series.
"It looks very promising in terms of a racing show. It’s my first time in Abu Dhabi, it’s nice and sunny. I have a smile on my face, and when you see this very nice track you will understand why.”
Vietoris’s DAMS team mate Edoardo Piscopo was equally enthralled, saying: “It’s very exciting to race here as it is an incredible venue. It will be challenging, a drivers’ track, there are some nice corners, very wide so we should be able to pass each other. Everything is amazing, everything is new. In these difficult times it is great to be in a place that is so positive.”
As well as clearly enjoying their runs on the track, the GP2 Asia drivers also relished the circuit’s distinctive challenges, which tested their driving skills to their limits.
“The track has fast corners, slow corners like a street circuit, long straights, and is hard on brakes,” explained Barwa Addax driver Luiz Razia. “My first impression was very good. You can feel the elevation changes. Going uphill and you can’t see anything and then downhill you see a great view, albeit like a flash.”
Scuderia Coloni’s Roldan Rodriguez added: “It was very fun to drive, and the corners were tricky. For sure it will be easy for the public to enjoy. It will be very easy to lose the traction on the corners, making it difficult for drivers and very good for the public.”
Over the course of the two days, some sessions were held in the dark to test the circuit’s lighting system. The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which will be the first-ever twilight Formula One race, will get underway at Yas Marina on Friday
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